Biking, Baseball and Basketball

I've been all over the place this past week. On Sunday afternoon I had a practice game of softball with my church team. I only had two at-bats. The first one I hit to shortstop but I got to first safely when the first baseman bobbled it for an error. I struck out the second time. During batting practice a few days earlier, I was shocked at how horribly I was batting after several years off the field. I was definitely the worst batter on my team and I was worried about striking out repeatedly (in softball no less) during our first game.

Come Monday evening, my church team had it's first two games at one of the many diamonds at Dreamers/Southwest Optimist, which is located across the Exeter from the old FCCC location. Without any time for further batting practice, the only thing that I was able to do was to mentally envision my batting. Fortunately, that did the trick for me. In each of my at-bats on Monday night I connected for consistant singles, though I didn't always make it to first. I also had a RBI single (Run Batted In) and scored a run myself. That was much improved, though I now need to work on placing the ball better when I hit. I used to be able to hit it in any direction I pleased so I'll have to pick that trick up again.

Our opposing team started with a 7-0 lead, including a homerun right over my head, so it didn't look too good for us at first. Fortunately, we picked up the pace thanks to their pitching and we narrowly lost 16-13 with two runs on base at the end. The next game was even better since we led by two runs going into the final half of the last inning but we ended up losing that one as well by a run.

Funny Story
The funniest part of those two games was one sequence in which the opposing team got a single from their lead-off hitter partway through the game. One of our outfielders yelled in asking if the person on first base was the same person that got the last out in the previous inning. I paused the game briefly and asked the runner on first base and he explained that the first base coach behind him was the guy that got out in the previous inning and that we were just confused since they all had the same team jersies. The first base coach confirmed that explanation. That was fine and I apologized for confusing things.

Since the issue was brought up, our score keeper then asked the umpire the same thing since she had been keeping track of each batter and she had asked in the previous inning if the opposing team had mixed up their batting order. Our score keeper and their score keeper compared notes and what do you know - our outfield had it right from the start. The runner on firstbase was called out and we continued the game. Funny, eh?

Basketball
As for other sports, I was talking to one of my team mates after the games on Monday and he told me about an excellent pick-up basketball game that he knew of. I've been asking all kinds of people about where I could find such a game for the past year and I finally found one It's on Riverside Road east of Wonderland at a Mormon church. The church has a fully decked out gym with hardwood floors, glass backboards and an electronic scoreboard. Very nice.

I went over there on Wednesday night at 9:00 pm after cell group and played for only an hour, just to check it out. Excellent skills in that group and good experience. I wasn't too good myself because I missed the five shots that I took in my low post position. Even though I have practiced basketball a lot in recent years, I haven't had the chance to play in competitive five-on-give games in a long time. The constant running and the pressure against other skilled players is something that I still need to get used to, especially since I really didn't get used to the pressure while I played in high school.

Biking
And finally, one more small story. On Tuesday my parents borrowed my van and left for Toronto early in the morning. When I got ready to leave for work, I realized that I had left my car keys and my wallet in the van the previous evening. No one else was around, so I decided to ride my bike to work. My mom rides her bike to school sometimes when she teaches and it only takes her 40 minutes, so I figured that I could swing that.

It took my 50 minutes to ride to work. I didn't stop at all but I certainly wasn't used to that much exercise. I had to ride my bike home as well after work since my parents weren't back yet and that only took me 40 minutes since it was downhill for more of the route. In any case, I'll probably pull that trick again soon. The fact that I need to lose fifteen pounds is a a side benefit to all of the exercise that I've been getting lately, so that's good as well I s'pose.